Mumbai, Nov. 26: Indian gold traders stayed away on Friday afternoon, as a weaker rupee made the dollar-quoted yellow metal expensive, dealers said.
“I have done minimal deals from morning as even the rupee is not in supporting mode,” said a dealer with a state-run bank in Mumbai, which imports bullion.
The most-active gold contract edged higher by 0.20 per cent higher at `20,406 rupees per 10 grams at 2:00 pm, helped by a weak rupee. The contract had struck an intra-day high of `20,412 rupees earlier in the session.
“If gold breaches below 20,000 rupees, we may see some buying interest,” said another dealer with a private bullion importing bank.
The Indian rupee extended its fall to ten week lows tracking a more than 1 percent drop in domestic shares while bunched up dollar demand a day after the US Thanksgiving holiday, also weighed.
India’s gold market is still in the midst of its busy season after the Dhanteras and Diwali festivals earlier this month as many weddings are to take place till December end, when demand for the yellow metal tends to go up. In the quarter to September, India imported 214 tonnes of gold, up 21.6 percent on year, the WGC said.